Mattress Ratings – Overview of the Best Mattresses

at QMattresses.com, visitors can now browse Value-Priced Mattresses as well as Mid-Priced Mattresses according to mattress rating. Check out the two posts if you want to skip through to the front of the line: Value Mattress Ratings for products generally priced under $1,000 and Mid-Priced Mattress Ratings for mattresses generally priced between $1,000 and $2,500.

At QMattresses, we believe that we cover only the best mattresses on the market, whether you are looking for a high end spring mattress like the Stearns & Foster brand or a discount memory foam mattress like the Dynasty Mattress product. Here, we take a broad view of Mattress Brands and compiled mattress ratings based on those brands, its general strengths and weaknesses. Our findings are here in our original and unique brand rating post. To arrive at these findings, we surveyed more than 1,200 respondents.

What qScore Means?

One of the unique attributes to these mattress ratings is what we call qScore, a weighted score based on six different measurements. Although qScore can be used as a summary or average of all individual scores, it also plays a minor role in other mattress ratings posts founds elsewhere on this site. The individual, key measurements that determine qScore are:

Comfort.

Support relates to how well supported users felt they were in their mattress.

Value represents the perceived value that buyers experience with their mattress.

Motion Transfer.

Quality.

Overall Satisfaction.

Despite what many visitors and analysts might feel, overall satisfaction does not by itself tell us what one product is “worth.” Overall satisfaction may be higher than comfort, for example, because the buyer feels that other measurements exceeded expectations.

As for ratings, each category was rated from Very Satisfied to Very Dissatisfied,with greater positive values given to Very Satisfied ratings and lower, negative values given to Very Dissatisfied ratings. This makes sense, in our view, because a user who is not just satisfied or dissatisfied has a reason to be angry enough to rate their this way. This implies an extreme, one way or the other and so we weighted such responses accordingly.

Again, we have examined over 900 pieces of data to come up with the following information. Here is what we have found from a general, high-level view:

Mattress Ranked by qScore

The qScore rankings below are in descending order, meaning that the PureBliss is ranked highest while the Vera Wang Mattress collection is ranked poorest.

Ranked by qScore, mattresses like PureBliss earn high marks for its consistent high ratings in Support, Value and Motion Transfer. While PureBliss mattresses score above both the median and average Overall Satisfaction score, this brand does not achieve the highest rating. If we rated mattresses solely on Overall Satisfaction, this is what the chart would look like:

Mattress Ratings Based on Overall Satisfaction

While we see Overall Satisfaction as one of the key drivers to making a solid recommendation to potential buyers, we believe it cannot be studied in isolation of the other key measurements. While we definitely see movement in the “top spots” remember that overall satisfaction could have a lot to do with manufacturer support instead of the actual mattress itself. So you want to be careful here unless you expect complete satisfaction.

Here, Englander Mattresses scores highest among users for Overall Satisfaction. This is a tremendous accomplishment, in our view. However, since Comfort falls to our Median range, we can only underline the fear we highlighted above about awarding too much weight to this specific category.

Mattress Ratings By Comfort

While Comfort represents a huge subjective measurement, it is also an important one. Given that one of our biggest objectives is to help people find a mattress they can love, Comfort means a whole lot here. But, again, we have emphasized in the past the danger with placing too much weight on Comfort alone. Comport and Support are not synonymous. For example, you might fall in love with a mattress in a showroom, but if it lacks support, your aches and pains the next day will matter a whole bunch more than how comfy that mattress is when you first lie on it.

We have highlighted in the past that Support carries a tremendous amount of weight when buying a mattress. However, since Support is not synonymous with Comfort, it is something that most people have a tough time testing out. It is often only once the mattress is in the home, slept on for a few weeks or so, that buyers can accurately gauge the Support value of their mattress.

Yes, we see some movement here compared to the Comfort chart. If we had our choice, we would suggest a mattress with greater Support over one with greater Comfort. This is because Support is really how you will feel the following day versus how you feel when you are awake, sitting on the mattress and enjoying – who cares how great you feel if you can barely stand the following morning because there is poor Support?

Mattress Ratings by Value

Value is important. When spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a mattress, you want to feel that you received great bang for your buck. This is natural, something that neither Comfort nor Support and, to a lesser degree, even Overall Satisfaction, can pinpoint on their own.

Interestingly, only two mattresses offer negative values for their Value points. The worst was King Koil mattresses, a mattress we have not yet covered, followed up by Chattam & Wells, a mattress brand that scores quite well for Overall Satisfaction and even Support.

Mattress Ratings by Motion Transfer

Motion Transfer is particularly important for people who share a mattress with a partner. Whether you are a restless sleeper or your partner is, the ability of your mattress to swallow that motion so as to not disturb the other sleeper is arguably one of the most important traits among many couples’ list of priority when buying a mattress.

As we see, Motion Transfer cannot be singled out on its own, nor does it justify a mattress’s Overall Satisfaction rating. Again, this is where qScore aims to level out the playing field. One of the most surprising names on this list is the Dynasty Mattress brand – despite its high marks in Motion Transfer it earns low marks in Comfort (yet impressive Support marks)… go figure.

Mattress Ratings Based on Quality

Perceived quality might seem to go hand-in-hand with some of the other ratings here, but realistically a consumer’s perception of the quality they have received in the mattress bought. Although many mattresses come with decade-long warranties (and many offer up to 120-days or risk-free trials), the actual quality received is important, which we are in the process of examining closer in our “Common Complaints” research.

We see Dynasty Mattresses at the top here, yet again. As noted in our Best Mattresses Sample Post, Dynasty was one of the biggest surprises we found in our research. Overall, it scores 4th in our qScore rankings, but where it scores highest is in the Quality measurement. Again, these rankings are based on actual owner testimonials

What These Mattress Ratings Tell Us

Ultimately, these ratings come from existing owners. These owners provided us with the data found here, so if you are uncertain about any of these six mattress qualities, then the individual ratings might help out. However, with the qScore you might find a fair and reasonable starting point in the research task facing you. Overall, it is worth looking at individual product reviews for a better feel, but focus on the products that are relevant to what you need, which is where these independent, third-party ratings fit in.

Where To Go From Here

If you are following our Mattress Buying Guide, you may wish to visit the other essential elements that go into your purchase decision, such as:

Mattress Reviews – find out more about the products that scored well here to see if their features, strengths and weaknesses will meet your requirements.

Mattress Complaints – see what existing owners just hate about the mattress(es) you are deliberating.

Mattress Warranty – learn more about how well (or not) the manufacturer backs up its product.